Blair savages critics over threat to civil liberties

By Gaby Hinslift

TONY BLAIR launches an unprecedented assault today on the legal and political establishment, accusing it of being 'out of touch' with the people – and pledges new moves to 'hassle, harry and hound' suspected criminals from Britain.

In a passionate public exchange of emails with Observer columnist Henry Porter, the Prime Minister vigorously defends his stance on civil liberties and sketches out a new fault line in British politics over individual freedoms, crossing the traditional divide between right and left.

Admitting frankly that some of his own party as well as many Tories and the Liberal Democrats are ranged against him, he insists nonetheless that he is on the side of-popular opinion and will not retreat, adding: 'I truly believe they are out of touch with their own voters.'

Critics such as Porter or Lord Steyn, the ex-law lord who recently accused his government of authoritarian tendencies and creating 'oppressive' immigration laws, had respectable motives but 'the practical effect of following the course you set out is a loss of civil liberties for the majority,' Blair concludes.

He outlines controversial new steps, ranging from seizing assets from suspected drug dealers – which could see anyone stopped with more than £1,000 having the money confiscated – to draconian new restrictions on the movements of those suspected of involvement in organized crime.

Even if they are not convicted of a crime and there is insufficient evidence to try them, suspects could be banned from associating with certain individuals or traveling to certain places, in order to disrupt trades such as human trafficking. Blair’s approach, to be fleshed out in a major debate about Labour's future after May's local elections, reflects a growing cross-party conviction that liberty is the new battleground for British politics.

Last week senior Tories launched a new grouping, Conservative Liberty Forum, with the blessing of David Cameron, which will debate issues ranging from CCTV to anti-terror legislation, and advise his policy review on fresh ideas to promote liberty.

'This will be one of the big issues for the next 10 years. It fits well with the new Conservative party and its rediscovering a lot of Conservative tradition' said Damian Green, the party’s immigration spokesman and one of the group's supporters. 'It's a genuine divide between the parties: New Labour has now taken the view that if something serves the interests of the police and the security services, we should do it'

Labour strategists, however, believe the Tories' reinvention has set Cameron adrift from public opinion: they were thrilled last week by newspapers unfavourably contrasting his eco-friendly trip to the Arctic with the Prime Minister meeting pensioners for tea. 'Tony Blair believes the political and media establishment are completely out of touch with where the public are on these issues and it's during election campaigns that that is brought home to politicians on the doorsteps,' said a Downing Street source.

'He wants to reopen the debate. David Cameron and Menzies Campbell are on different ground to him on this – and it's an area where the Tories, through having to take up positions to appeal to new people, seem to be losing the plot.'

Today, also writing in The Observer, leading Tory the Earl of Onslow writes an open letter to Cameron demanding his leader take a much more active role in defending what the peer describes as threatened British liberties.

In the exchange with Porter, Blair admits measures such as the antisocial behaviour laws have 'disturbed the normal legal process' but argues that previously police were not prosecuting over such crimes: 'Where these powers are being used, the law-abiding no longer live in fear of the lawless.'

He defended controversial action on asylum and immigration as necessary to prevent racists exploiting the issues.

And he said Stein's criticism, in a lecture earlier this year, showed 'how out of touch much of the political and legal establishment is today', adding that he remains determined to go further down the same road: 'I would widen the police powers to seize the cash of suspected drug dealers, the cars they drive round in... I would impose restrictions on those suspected of being involved in organized crime. In fact I would generally harry, hassle and hound them until they give up or leave the country.'

Plans are being drawn up for a super-strength variant of the anti-social behavior order, for those suspected of involvement in organized crime such as drug smuggling or sex trafficking.

Suspects would be forbidden from associating with accomplices or visiting certain places on pain of jail, restricting their liberty in an unprecedented way. Such civil orders can be obtained with less proof than a court conviction.

Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, will use a lecture to the London School of Economics tomorrow to counter what he will describe as 'the myth' that Lab our has assumed police state powers.

Critics cite examples such as a new law forbidding demonstrations outside Parliament without prior police permission. Clarke is expected to argue that freedom is alive and kicking, with 157 demonstrations held there since last August.

The Observer,

Sunday 23, April 2006